Summer Rain
by SilverTinkerbell
Summary: What if Barry the Chopper was right? What if Alfonse Elric really was just a set of memories his brother strung together in the seal within his armour? Does that make him a human being, a monster or maybe something else altogether?
1. Prologue

**Author's note:** The usual rules apply. I don't own any characters (maybe one of the anonymous doctors vaguely mentioned perhaps).

Reviews would be greatly appreciated. And I don't mind flames either. Go right ahead.

**Prologue:**

No more summer showers. The sky cleared up leaving a blue heaven and a cleansed earth. The sweet, fresh smell of the wet soil, sand and grass hung the air as a firm reminder of the rain's purpose: nourishment of what is and rebirth of what was. Before this day, Trisha Elric and her sons have always looked forward to summer rains, or rather, what the world was like right after it had rained. They always walked outside together, bare feet on the wet grass and took in the beauty of the reborn world around them.

Although her sons were already advanced in knowledge of the world and its elements for their age, Trisha tried her best not just to encourage her sons to learn more, but also to appreciate all the little things and values in life. To see her sons looking forward to the summer just because of the rain gave her the feeling that she succeeded.

But that all changed today.

His temperature was steadily rising. His face glowed from perspiration. He couldn't eat. He could barely drink without bringing it back out. Her youngest son was progressively starting to get weaker. Trisha couldn't understand it. He was fine just yesterday and now he was slipping away in front of her very eyes. No doctor seemed to know what was wrong with or could offer any advice. She sat at Alfonse's bedside, holding his hand tightly, at aloss of what to do.

She heard Edward banging his fist loudly on the bedroom door, begging to enter. Trisha glanced over at Pinako, who was always there to help her out in a bad situation. The old lady nodded and headed towards the door, opening it only slightly.

"I want to see him!" Edward demanded, trying to push the door open more. Pinako's strength was deceiving, being used to carrying heavy metal pieces, and refused entrance.

"Your brother's very ill and needs some rest," Pinako said in a gentle but hushed tone.

"I won't wake him, I just want to see him," the young boy said defiantly and rather loudly, clenching his fists in an attempt to hold back his tears. "He needs me in there too!"

Pinako shook her head and closed the door before Edward could object. And soon as she did so she heard Edward slamming his fists against the door, screaming blue murder at the ladies in the bedroom and kicking as hard as his small figure could allow him.

"Well I'm pretty sure Alfonse isn't going to get any rest at all with that racket," Pinako sighed sadly.

"Poor child," Trisha whispered, as she brushed a clammy lock of hair out of Alfonse's face.

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Three weeks later, the summer rain came and went again. A pile of freshly dug up earth was watered down into sludge and the hole next to it had a small pool in its depths.

Pinako put her hand on young Edward's shoulder as they trudged through the muddy grass of the cemetery. "Your mother entrusted you with me," she said kindly.

Edward nodded in response, not really listening. He stopped and stared at the two new graves. One was already filled whilst his mother's coffin was slowly lowered into the other one. In three weeks his entire life came crashing down.

As the guests left the site one by one, paying their respects and condolences to the only Elric standing, Edward didn't once take his eyes off of the two graves. When at last the last two (Pinako and Winry) got up to leave, they left behind a flashlight for Ed to find his way back alone.

The mud on his shoes had hardened and wet grass of cemetery was starting to attract insects. Once the sun had set, the world left behind by the summer rain didn't seem as welcoming anymore. Staring at the two graves he realised that the sun that shone light on his life and the rain that cleansed his soul were gone.

"I'm gonna bring the both of you back…"


	2. 1: You just don't anymore

**AN: **I do not own them.

**BTW**, so sorry that Ed seems to be injured in almost every one of my fics. Don't mean for that to happen. He's just so accident prone. I mean, the guy lost and arm and a leg for crying out loud. Bad stuff is bound to happen to him! This event occurs straight after the battle of the 5th Laboratory.

Thanks for all the great reviews so far!

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_Am I real?_

An empty suit of armour sat on the clean hospital floor, contemplating life. **His** life. For one, how can a suit of armour, like himself, be able to walk around freely, think for itself and care for others? In fact, how is it possible that an armoured suit was able to contemplate life in the first place? The answer is… it can't. It's not possible.

The clump of soul and steel stared at the ground. Well, stare… scrap metal can't really stare, now can it? In any case, his metal helmet was pointed towards the floor.

_It can't be true… Barry the Chopper couldn't have been right… could he?_

He must've been lying. There was no other way. The brother that Alfonse Elric held so dear would never do this to him. Edward Elric would never have trapped his little brother in this lonely prison. That is to say, if he had a little brother to begin with…

_Did I ever actually exist?_

Alfonse looked up at the bed where his older brother lay. He had taken a real beating from the Slicer brothers, followed almost directly by the homunculi.

_What was it that brother was so scared to tell me?_

The suit of armour was so lost in thought that he didn't hear Winry enter the room. Only after she passed his line of view did he realise that he wasn't the only one watching over Edward at that point. Al didn't really acknowledge that she was there though. Instead his gaze met the floor once more.

She checked if Edward was still sleeping (_as a rock, as usual…_) then went and sat next to her metallic friend on the floor. She hugged her legs, rested her chin on her knees and tried to follow Alfonse's gaze, wondering what he found so interesting about the floor. The blonde girl sighed when the clean, creamy-white marble turned out to be disappointingly boring.

_Does she know?_

"Al, are you alright?" she asked in an unusually hushed tone for the notorious Ms Rockbell.

"Wh-what do you mean, Winry?" Alfonse replied turning his gaze from the floor to the young lady sitting by his side. Winry could always see straight through the brothers Elric. Whether or not they told her what had happened, she always knew when something was wrong with the siblings. It frustrated her that they left her in the dark more often than not.

"Don't kid around with me, Alfonse Elric. I wasn't born yesterday, you know," she looked up at him with a concerned face that she never really revealed to the two boys. She never showed them when she was worried (usually a slam on the head with a wrench signified concern in the not-so ancient language of Winrish).

_She **must** know…_

If she already knew the truth, Al figured that there was reason to keep this from her. Al looked stared at Winry for a moment, unsure of how to put his thoughts into words. The longer he took to think though, the more worried Winry seemed to get. Al didn't want that…

"Winry… how much do you know?" he asked in as natural a tone as he could, although she could hear his voice shaking. Winry furrowed her brows.

"What do you mean exactly, Al?" she answered, unsure what to make of such an odd question.

"You remember when we were kids, right?"

"Um… yeah. Of course I do." Winry didn't like where this was going.

"The fights, Mom's cakes, when Den lost his leg, our first transmutation?"

Winry giggled. "Yeah, that transmutation scared the living daylights outta me. I could never play with that doll, I was so traumatised!"

"I was there, right?"

Winry's giggles died down immediately. Her eyes widened with shock.

_She **does** know…_

"You… were there," she said very carefully. She broke eye contact, unable to bear to be the one to have to tell Al the truth whilst Edward got to sleep soundly as this was unravelling.

"Are you sure?" Alfonse sensed something was not quite right with this conversation.

"I… I have a picture of us all together, with me holding the doll," Winry stated hesitantly, though she didn't look up at him.

The large tin man sighed. That made a little more sense. It was hard to trick with a photo…

_Unless…_

"How can you prove that that was me? How do I know that you're all not trying to trick me?" he said, deep down wishing that he had never asked her that.

Winry took her eyes off of the floor again and looked at him with an angered expression. "Prove to me that that's NOT you in the picture!"

"Ok then, why don't I have ANY recollection of the year after mother died? In fact, why don't I recall Mom dying at all?"

Winry was stunned, thoroughly regretting ever opening her mouth at all when she entered the room. How was she going to dodge this one? Alfonse looked down at the girl, whose eyes were threatening to tear. Moments passed without a word…

_Why doesn't she answer?_

"Because you passed away a week before Mom died," a young man's voice called out from the bed. Edward sat up and stared at his brother with an expression that cannot be put into words.

"**The truth is, Al, you did indeed exist… but part of you just… doesn't… anymore…"**

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**Next Chapter up soon!**


	3. 2: The Midas Touch

**AN:** Yeah, still don't own them…

**BTW, **thank you guys yet again for all those lovely reviews. And no, this is NOT, and I repeat NOT, an Al x Winry fic! They're just friends who love one another like siblings.

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He wanted to escape. Oh how he just wanted to get away. He was a monster, an abomination that had slipped through the fingers of God's grace. What right did he have to be here, around real people? People who were not created in sin…

_This whole mission was a lie!_

He swiftly made his way out of the hospital. His metal suit clanked against the marble floors, echoing in the empty hallways as a painful reminder of what he was. Winry was calling after him but he didn't hear her. Inanimate objects can't hear. Nor can they see, talk, feel or love. He was no longer Alfonse Elric. The metallic giant exited the hospital…

… only to find it raining cats and dogs outside.

_Darn…_

He couldn't walk through the rain. A single drop can smear his seal out of existence (and he wasn't exactly waterproof where his joints were). Luckily there was a shelter over the entrance to the hospital. Otherwise he would've ceased to exist before he had time to come to terms with his situation. He didn't want his soul to disappear. Not just yet. He wanted to understand before he destroyed himself.

He stared up at the clouded heavens crying tears that he himself could not. It was raining very hard indeed. He needed to be careful. Summer showers were always the most lethal to him…

_Summer showers…Oh my God!_

Something in him snapped… something he had forgotten about… It sent chills down his imaginary spine.

He took a step backwards, nearly bumping into Winry, who was standing right behind him. They both startled each other. She had caught up with him whilst he had stood outside contemplating the weather. She didn't expect him to move so suddenly and he didn't even realise that she had followed him. This brief form of contact made him acknowledge her presence. However, after the initial shock passed he recoiled within his thoughts once more. As if she was but a mere fly on the wall.

The tin man sat down on the floor with a loud crash, as if some one had dropped a load of pots and pans. He curled into as small of a ball as a piece of metal like him could possibly be rolled into. He was shaking. His limbs rattled along with the symphony of the falling rain outside.

_The summer showers... the summer showers…_

Winry remained silent. She knew that nothing she said could make her dear friend feel better. Something had scared him but she was wise enough not to ask what. News like this can awaken anything within someone. May it be a whimpering child or a hideous raging monster, she didn't want to be the person to spark it off. But she didn't want her childhood friend to suffer alone so she stood behind him, leaning against the slightly dampened wall. Even under the shelter some raindrops managed to stray…

She was invisible to Alfonse. He was in a world of his own. She couldn't help him right now. The young girl watched helplessly as the metallic boy started rocking to and fro, whispering the same words that only he could hear…

… _the summer showers… the summer showers…_

**o**

**O**

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"_Mother! The summer showers! The summer showers!" An excited little boy pointed out of the window at the dark summer sky. "It's going to rain today!" he cried out._

_His mother gave him a warm smile. His slightly older brother smirked casually from the seat next to their mother (it SO wasn't cool to overreact like little Alfonse did… even if Ed loved this time of year just as much). _

"_Can I go outside already, Mom? Please?"_

"_Al, the rain hasn't even begun to fall. Besides, you'll catch your death playing outside in the rain," his pretty mother replied sternly, yet a little weakly. She had been quite under the weather for the past couple of months. But she didn't let on how seriously ill she actually was._

_**If only I had listened…**_

_He had snuck out. His mother was napping and his brother was busy transmuting the kitchen table into an over-sized toothpick (sometimes their mom got a little ticked off with some of their antics…this trick surely would be one of them). No one even realised he was gone._

_The young boy ran on the grass in the rain. No umbrella, no coat, not even shoes. Mother always told him that the rain was his friend. It nurtures the world, bringing it new life. What his dear mother forgot to tell insinuate was that the rain took lives as well._

_He stood in the middle of the field, both arms stretched outward so that the rain could touch every part of his soul. He closed his eyes and twirled as he felt the rain falling harder against his skin, then stopped when he got too dizzy. He opened his wet eyelids again to a day of darkness, yet a day of life. _

_The child called out to his weathery companion as if the tip tap of the drops were a reply to his calls. He laughed. He smiled. Then he laughed again. The rain was his friend. The rain was his ally._

_He looked down and cupped his hands, collecting water from the raindrops and the stream water dripping from the tip of his nose and the tips of his clumped-up, wet bangs. The little boy watched with amusement as his hand filled with the true elixir of life… followed almost directly by a confused frown._

_**Why was the water pink?**_

_The child shrugged it off, believing that his eyes were too wet to be seeing clearly. Besides, what sounds more absurd than pink rain? And without a second thought, he lifted his cupped hands above his head, opened his mouth and trickled the cool, slightly salty liquid down his throat._

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**O**

**o**

_The summer showers… the summer showers…_

It had deceived him. Like everyone around him, the rain had deceived him. Ever since he had attained this body the rain had been his mortal enemy. He looked up and watched the droplets slowly die down and eventually stop altogether. He watched as the clouds cleared into a crystal clear night and he watched as dawn broke over the cleansed earth. He watched as the new rays danced upon puddles, turning everything the rain had touched into gold. The Midas touch: the touch that had turned him into what he is now.

He heard Winry snoring. The sound was a strange, yet effective way in which to bring him back to Earth. She had fallen asleep in a seated position against the wall behind him hours ago. Alfonse understood that his brother was still too injured to follow him so Winry must've decided to pursue him instead.

_Was she watching over me all night?_

The tin man was too lost in thought to notice that she hadn't left at all. He turned to look at her for the first time since he nearly bumped into her. She seemed to be sleeping peacefully (but snoring quite loudly). Alfonse Elric felt his non-existent heart warm up again. The truth struck him right then and there.

_They still care about me… As if I was real._

The suit of armour watched her sleep for a little while longer. He knew that his brother would've been right here too if he was mobile. The thought was welcoming and uplifting.

Alfonse sighed and got up as silently as his hollow metal pieces could allow him to, then turned and picked her up and carried her back to Edward's room. He had to face his brother sooner or later. This fight is gonna be hell.

_But at least I know one thing…_

Even if his heart isn't real, his mind didn't exist and his soul is but a mere illusion, the love that Edward and Winry shared for him, Alfonse the suit of armour, is all but fake.

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**Nest Chapter up soon...**


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